US prosecutors allege Saudi backing for ex-OpenAI engineer in office spying case
US prosecutors allege ex-OpenAI engineer Abdulrahman Alfozan got considerable Saudi backing — contact with a Saudi royal-family member and a military-paid plane ticket for his family — as they ask a judge to keep him jailed pending trial over a recording device allegedly planted in an OpenAI confere
What happened
WASHINGTON, Oct 19 (Reuters) — An ex-OpenAI engineer accused of planting a recording device in an executive conference room at OpenAI appears to have received considerable support from the Saudi government, US prosecutors said in a court filing.
Federal prosecutors allege that the defendant, Abdulrahman Alfozan, 35, was in frequent communication with an unnamed member of the Saudi royal family, and that a member of the Saudi military paid for a one-way plane ticket for Alfozan's wife and son to return to Saudi Arabia. The filing was made public late Sunday.
Prosecutors made the allegations as they asked a federal judge to keep Alfozan, a Saudi national, in US custody to await trial, arguing he is a flight risk. He is scheduled to appear in federal court in San Francisco later Monday.
Alfozan was charged last week with using an electronic device to intercept oral communications: prosecutors say he plugged a recording device into the back of a television in an executive conference room at one of OpenAI's San Francisco buildings. The Saudi government media office did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Why it matters
The filing is the first official claim that a foreign government stood behind the office spying case, and prosecutors are treating it as a national-security matter: they are asking the court to hold Alfozan in custody on flight-risk grounds while the case proceeds. For AI labs competing fiercely on sensitive research, the case is a live demonstration that their offices are now counterintelligence targets, not just workplaces.
Verified October 19, 2026.
Related: https://dotsfeed.com/news/openai-employee-arrested-hidden-recording-device-office
Sources
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